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Parliamentary Elections Act [Election Judges], (31 and 32

Vict., c. 125).

Reform Act of 1867 (30 and 31 Vict. c. 102).

Ballot Act of 1872 (35 and 36 Vict., c. 33).

Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873 (36 and 37 Vict. c. 66).

FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS, THE FOLLOWING EXPLANATIONS ARE GIVEN OF COMMON POLITICAL TERMS AND EXPRESSIONS.

SUPREME POLITICAL AUTHORITY.-The person or persons in a political community, who, at a given time, are habitually obeyed by the bulk of the persons in the community. STATE. (1) A portion of the human race, looked upon as occupying a definite territory, as having a continuous history, and as organised for purposes of Government. The word is also sometimes (2) used to express the Supreme Political Authority of a nation at a given time. GOVERNMENT.-The word sometimes (1) is used to express the

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mere fact of some person or persons in a nation being generally obeyed by all the rest. Sometimes (2) the word signifies the Supreme Political Authority at the time,as in the phrase "Form of Government." Sometimes (3) the word signifies the persons entrusted with the active duties of carrying laws into effect and regulating certain departments of the State, as in the phrases "The Queen's Government," "A Liberal or a Conservative Government." LAW. (1) A Law is a general command of the Supreme Political Authority, purporting to direct or control the acts of persons in the community. The word Law is also (2) used to denote either a body of Laws (in the first sense), or (abstractly) the mere fact of such Laws existing, as in the phrase "the reign of Law." The word "Law" is also used in a variety of other senses for non-political purposes. LEGISLATIVE.—The Legislative Authority of a State is the Supreme Political Authority looked upon as engaged in making Laws.

EXECUTIVE, ADMINISTRATIVE.-These terms are sometimes used convertibly with each other, to express the person or persons to whom the Supreme Political Authority deputes the functions (1) of carrying Laws into effect, and (2) of

a

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actively regulating certain departments of the State,-in other words, the terms signify the Government in the third of the meanings above given. Sometimes the term Administrative is opposed to Executive, and is limited to express the person or persons charged with making official appointments and regulating certain departments of the State. JUDICIAL.-The Judicial Authority is that part of the Execu

tive Authority which is concerned with formally and publicly investigating whether Laws have been disobeyed, and who are the persons who have disobeyed them. MONARCHY.-A form of Government in which the Supreme Political Authority is restricted in numbers to one person only is sometimes called an "Absolute" Monarchy or "Despotism." Where it is, in form, restricted to one person, though the power is shared to a greater or less extent by a larger or smaller number of other persons, chosen in some one out of many possible ways, it is called a "Limited" or a "Constitutional" Monarchy. ARISTOCRACY, OLIGARCHY.-Where the Supreme Political Authority consists of a number of persons, though not a very large number, chosen either with reference to birth, or to special personal merit, or to some standard other than that supplied by popular election irresponsibly exercised, the form of Government is said by its friends and enemies to be an Aristocracy, that is, "Government by the best," and sometimes, by its enemies, to be an Oligarchy, that is, "Government by a few." DEMOCRACY.-Where the Supreme Political Authority either consists of a very large number of persons, making a considerable fraction of all the persons in the community,—or where the persons constituting that Authority are directly elected by, and subjected to no other conditions than those implied in the unrestricted choice of, nearly all the persons in the community, the form of Government is said to be a Democracy.

REPUBLIC.-This is a term often equally used by the friends both of an Aristocracy and a Democracy to describe those two forms of Government, and thus a Republic may be either Aristocratic or Democratic. Where the Supreme Political Authority ostensibly consists of a number of persons neither very great nor very small; where no hereditary

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pretensions prevail in the choice of them; but it is believed that they are chosen on wide and popular principles likely to conduce in the highest degree to the general and equally distributed well-being of the whole community, and to the suppression of personal self-seeking, the form of Government is sometimes said by those who share this belief to be a Republic. CONSTITUTION, CONSTITUTIONAL.-All the Laws and all the customary practices which, taken together, determine the person or persons who shall constitute the Supreme Political Authority of a State, and which ascertain the modes of Legislation, and the method of appointing and restricting the Executive Authority, are compendiously styled the Constitution of that State. According as a newly-suggested measure is or is not believed to conform to the spirit of those laws and practices, it is said to be Constitutional or Unconstitutional.

RIGHT.—(1) A Right is a measure of power delegated by the State to persons said to be thereby invested with the right, over the acts of other persons said to be thereby made liable to the performance of a duty. This is the strict legal sense of the term, though the term has important moral and popular uses from which the above use has to be carefully distinguished. For instance, the term right is often used in political discussions to signify a moral claim which it is iniquitous, or, at the least, highly inexpedient, not to recognise; as in the phrases, "a slave has a right to his freedom," and "every one has a right, by himself or by his representatives, to assent to or dissent from, the imposition of taxes, which he is called upon to pay." In the strict use, every right pre-supposes a duty, though every legal duty does not pre-suppose a legal right. The State, which is the source of all legal rights and duties, cannot be strictly said to have legal rights itself, though it may confer on all the official persons who are engaged in its administration such rights as are needed for the purposes of their work.